A Little Yarn On The Side

My crafting has received a very big boost recently:  1) the weather is cold & rainy and yard work is pretty miserable, and 2) I'm supposed to be resting my arm and not doing yard work in the first place.  So....meet FINISHED project number 33: 34: and 35: which I promise has advanced to actual "finished bag" stage but somehow managed to miss the picture stage.  Theo thinks I'm cheating here but I swear it's really & truly done.  In fact, project 36 is about half finished: which is going to be a wall hanging for the guest room.  The shiny red will be a frame of sorts, and it actually matches the guest room bedding really well Last week Joann Fabrics had a 50% clearance fabric sale, so I shamelessly stocked up on home decorating fabrics, as I had recently thought of some ideas for wall hangings & bags and other stuff.  So, that pledge to buy no fabric for the rest of the year?  Yup, totally blown away.  Still, I have now used up ...

Projects finished: 2 Yards of fabric used up today: 1/2 Projects of the month cast on: 1 Celebratory white chocolate martinis drunk before dinner:  1 Motor skills still remaining to figure out how to upload pictures onto blog:  0

Today is the first of the month, so it's time for a Project of the Month bag.  This month we have...... socks! Specifically, Monkey sock s.  I'm hoping the pattern helps cope with the stretchiness of the yarn.  It's 7% elastic, which in the sock world means that sock & foot are likely to part company after a few hours of wear.  Apparently no one else had better luck with this yarn as it has now been discontinued, but I think there are still 4 more skeins of the stuff in my stash after this.  If this sock pattern doesn't  help, I'll use the remaining skeins for baby hats, since even if the hats are just as obnoxious as the socks, babies aren't going to complain--or at least not to me. My little sidekick was a bit sulky when I first came back from my trip, but since he forgave me, we've been inseparable.  Yesterday we cut out more mittens and while 10 finished mittens maybe isn't that impressive, we have quite a stack now cut out Now a SMART pe...

Okay--there was a fabric "incident" a few days ago.  Actually, two separate fabric "incidents."  The good news is, I'm already using one of the new fabric acquisitions.  The bad news is, I don't think using up a whopping 1/4 yard of fabric really impacts the significantly more than 1/4 yards of fabric I purchased.  BUT I DIDN'T BUY MORE YARN!!!  That's something at least. On the positive note, what I actually used up in April amounts to: Yards of yarn used:  1289 skeins of yarn used: 4 yards of fabric used:  5 (I'm not ready to discuss fabric additions) So, the stash totals for the year so far are: Yards of yarn used:  4663.5 skeins of yarn used:  29.75 yards of fabric used:  21.155 Projects finished so far this year:  32

The 4th month is ending and to be PERFECTLY on track to finish 100 projects, I needed to have completed 33.33333333 projects.  With all my WIPs, I think I might have the 0.33333333 part covered, and just finished redoing the 6 inches of ribbing on the striped top giving me 32 finished projects.  (picture tomorrow) Ha!  I am close!!!!   Which for me is almost as good as actually BEING on schedule--and maybe better, because if I was actually ON schedule the shock might have been too much for me.  As it is, I am really pleased.  Even with my crazy decisions lately (working on a quilt, doing a mitten garland that is going to require a LOT of little mittens, working on ANYTHING smaller than size 8 needles), I could actually finish 100 projects this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if I do, doesn't it just make you wonder what sort of craziness I'll come up with for 2011????????

For a number of reasons--being really busy over the last few months, garden season about to hit, and the fact that I cannot seem to rest my injured arm while I'm here--I decided to "get away from it all" for a few days.  Since I was taking my computer & camera, I thought I'd be updating my blog while on the road--not realizing quite how "away from it all" I was getting.  I had picked an historic hote l that specifically said "no phones" and why that didn't translate into "probably means no internet either" for me is anyone's guess.  BUT, even with all the driving I did get some quality crafting time in.  Mr. Flurry now has a body and part of a hat The neck of the old cotton sweater is at 2 1/2 inches of the 6 needed and the mitten collection is progressing nicely: I'll be making a run to the craft store to get some blue thread for the white mitten up at the top.  I'm thinking royal blue stitching around the outs...

Okay, to make a quilt with 35 blocks, I need to make it through 840 triangles.  I have 162 to go.  I know I'm on the downhill side, and REALLY have comparatively few to go......but I need a break.  So..... It's new project time!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Really, you seriously didn't think I was going to be all responsible & pull something out of the WIP pile, did you?) Actually, I wanted to get started on this while I still had the idea in my mind.  I'm making a mitten garland--or at least that is the plan.  I have 4 colors of felt to use--3 blues & a white--and since only one side of each mitten will be visible, I think it will be a great time to experiment with some ideas & techniques. Theo, of course, is thrilled and did his very best yesterday to make cutting out the mittens as difficult as possible: I couldn't even distract him with a little scarf blocking so I think I have my very first furless scarves EVER.  I'm still in shock.  In s...